Work Text:
[1.]
Peter had grown up in a time where phones were revolutionary, and he still firmly believed in it, it was his primary form of reaching people, he would call if he wanted to check up on a person, and he would call if he needed help with anything.
Elizabeth wasn’t in town this week, and he was feeling lonely despite having Satchmo right by his side, a dog just wasn’t the same as a person you loved. So, in an attempt to cure his boredom he reached for his phone. He unlocked it and began scrolling through his contacts.
Neal was the first person to pop up, the con man had called to ask if he wanted to go grab ice cream, Peter had turned down the invitation due to the fact that Elizabeth was going to head out of town for her job soon, so he had wanted to treasure every moment with her.
Hesitating a little he let his finger hover over the ‘call’ button, was he really such a pathetic man that he had to call his CI, if he wanted to talk to anyone? The answer was yes, he pressed the button, and listened as the phone trilled, dialling up his favourite criminal.
It seemed like it took forever for Neal to pick up the phone, he had been close to just pressing on the ‘end’ button and sulking about how even Neal had something better to do than talk with Peter. It wasn’t that he was obligated to answer, Peter just liked… checking up on him, for no apparent reasons.
A ‘click’ sounded and a familiar voice filtered out of the phone.
“Hi, it’s Neal, what’s up?”
His voice sounded slightly weird, but Peter wrote it up to just being bad connection or the phone messing his voice up, maybe he should buy a new phone?
“Hello, I just wanted to check up on you”
Believable excuse, right?
It took a few seconds before Neal answered, a click sounded when his voice came out again “Neat… I am doing just well-”
“Where are you?” Peter questioned, the connection had made the call sound staticy, it had almost sounded like Neal had been cut off from continuing talking.
“Uhm…” Neal trailed off, a noise sounded in the background, was that yelling? “Paintball”
Paintball? He hadn’t known that the conman played paintball, maybe he should get the team together for a paintball tournament, Neal would surely lose to Jones, the ex military man had a few tricks up his sleeve and seemed to dominate every single challenge he met. Sometimes Peter even wondered why he bothered staying in the White Collar department, he was too talented to just sit and file mortgage fraud cases.
“Am I interrupting you?”
A click sounded again.
“Nah,” Neal seemed to grit out the words “I just lost to a small kid.”
“Oh”
Awkward silence filled the phone call, Peter wasn’t going to laugh, he wouldn’t laugh, he was a professional FBI agent, he shouldn’t laugh.
“You-”
Another ‘click’ cut Neal off from saying anything, he had sounded angry?
“Neal, are you okay, do you need help?”
‘Click’
“Uh, sorry, bad connection” He huffed “Can I call you back later?”
“Yeah, sorry”
“It’s chill, talk to you later!”
The call ended before Peter had the chance to reply, he debated whether or not he was going to believe the paintball story, but then remembered sometimes ignorance is bliss, so he tried to imagine Neal in a suit, fired up about paintball, the thought made him snort, he had to convince Jones to beat the con man in paintball.
Peter stood from his sofa, Satchmo followed close by, there wasn’t much to do other than maybe call another person, he walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge to reveal a bunch of leftovers.
An idea struck him. Jones made great food and knew good places to get food from, maybe Peter could ask him to eat out, and perhaps fill out some of the time he would have wasted watching baseball with meaningful bonding.
Eagerly he pulled out his phone and dialled Jones’ number, he knew it by heart. Again the line trilled as Peter waited for the other man to pick up, or at least shoot him a text that said he was busy.
A click sounded and Jones picked up.
“Peter?” The man said hastily.
“Jones, are you busy?”
Peter didn’t want to bother him if he was up to something.
“Nope, peachy”
Again he sounded like he was in a hurry, Peter ignored a thought about how everyone must be too busy to interact with him. Neal had picked up and talked, despite playing paintball.
“Okay?” Peter said, “You know Elizabeth isn’t home right now?”
A laugh escaped Jones, and static filled the line for a second, was it Peter’s phone that was the problem?
“Is this a booty call?” It was clear to hear the man's smile despite not being able to see him.
“No-” He spluttered “I just wanted to nag you for dinner, but if you have plans i’ll just ask Diana.”
“Uhm,” Jones trailed off, probably deep in thought, a bang sounded and Peter instinctively ducked, it sounded like a gunshot.
“Sorry about that,” Jones tried to laugh it off “Laser tag, you know how it is”
He really didn’t.
“Hahah, yeah” Peter said “Does laser tag usually sound like gunshots?”
A snort escaped near Jones, was Peter on speaker? “Some do, yeah”
Jones continued changing the topic “Dinner, I can make Mexican rice?”
“Sounds good, what time?”
“Around 6.30, Neal is coming too.”
Neal…? Peter worried that Jones and Neal were getting too close, he would hate to have to say goodbye to one of them if the situation called for it, but he would probably be fired if anything were to happen with Neal and he didn’t do anything.
“Okay, thank you!”
“No problem honey, see you soon!”
“Goodbye!”
The phone call didn’t immediately stop, and Peter heard more yelling and gunshots. If Jones ever asked him to join him for laser tag he was going to refuse.
[2.]
Peter actually had a purpose in mind when he picked up his phone to dial a number he had memorised, he was working on a case and Jones had worked on it previously so he had more knowledge about it, and the military man had a knack for piecing together cases when he was presented with evidence.
His fingers floated over the green call button, hesitating, last time he had called Jones he had interrupted the man, but work was important enough to take away some of his free time, so he pressed it. The phone rang for a while, and Peter worried that Jones wouldn’t pick up the phone, it would of course be okay, but it would be really great if the other just picked it up.
“Hello?” Neal answered the phone.
Confused Peter checked the phone, he had called Jones hadn’t he?
“Hello Neal” He dragged out the name, why on earth would the conman be in possession of Jones’ phone, he hoped that Neal hadn’t stolen it, it would be a pain in the ass to diffuse that situation.
“What’s up?”
What’s up? What’s up is that you have stolen an FBI agents phone, and now you’re talking with your supervisor who has to report anything suspicious and criminal you do.
“Is Jones available?”
“Uhm…” Neal’s voice faded as he shouted something out, Peter couldn’t quite catch it all “... what … say … fine …” The conman took a deep breath before answering the question “Jones fell off a roof, and is currently in the hospital getting his sprained ankle treated, he is available.”
Fell off a roof…? Why did Peter even bother with his career? How does one even fall off a roof? Did Neal push him? He really hoped he didn’t but it wouldn’t be above the conman to do such things.
He had done it when chasing a suspect before, the suspect had fled and Neal had followed, when that man ran, he ran like a giselle, how he managed to run that flawlessly was a wonder to Peter. When Neal had caught up to the suspect they had been close to a roof ledge, and the suspect “tried” to push Neal off so he did it back, only that he succeeded in it.
“Great, hand over the phone, now.” Peter didn’t want to talk with roof pushers.
His phone picked up on scrambling and rustling and in the background a beeping sound, as the phone was transferred from one idiot to another.
“How the fuck did you fall off a roof?!?” Peter exclaimed the second Jones was about to say something, a chuckle left the other man.
“Neal overplayed it, I was just playing laser tag and slipped”
Two different stories, which did he believe in more? None of them, the pair of them were liars when they were together, they were just bad influences on eachother, he didn’t understand how an FBI agent could make a conman more of a nuisance but somehow they managed it. One thing he was certain of was that he was never joining a laser tag game with Jones, no matter how much he was bribed.
“Oh really?” Peter said sarcastically.
“It sounds fake, but it really did happen,” Jones defended.
“Right… Remember that case with the guy who laundered money through his car dealership?”
“ Freddie Dinardo?”
“Exactly!”
************
With the help of Jones and a little bit of Neal, they wrapped up the case, and Freddie Dinardo wouldn’t be able to slip around an arrest, as a thanks Peter had put together a little care basket for Jones with the help of Elizabeth.
With a knock on Jones’ door he announced his presence, a voice from inside the apartment yelled and he took it as an invite to come inside, he struggled a bit with opening the door but managed anyways.
“Jason why did you knock?” Jones’ voice asked from a different room, he was getting closer.
Instinctively Peter froze, was it too late to just back out of the room, he didn’t want to bother Jones and his … Jason? He had never heard him mention Jason before, maybe he had gotten a new friend because of the excessive amount of laser tag he was playing.
The other man appeared in the doorway “You aren’t Jason”
“...Surprise?” Peter held out the basket “Just take this, El insisted that you had to get a care basket.”
Surprise filled his face “Oh really?” he smiled brightly “She really didn’t have too, but please say thanks from me”
Peter cleared his throat awkwardly “Right, uhm, I will be headed away, good luck with your ankle”
Jones cocked his head to the side “It’s all good now, it really wasn’t that bad”
“Right… Goodbye!” Peter began backing away “And say hi to Jason from me”
“Goodbye Peter, thank you for your concerns!” Jones replied cheerfully.
Peter waved as he made a beeline for the elevator, he didn’t want to be in the way of Jones, the man didn’t need his colleague showing up unannounced at his house.
When the doors opened he was met with a familiar person, right in front of him stood Neal, he wasn’t wearing a suit, so he looked odd. He was staring at his phone, but his gaze lifted and he locked eyes with Peter, an eyebrow arched, what was he doing here?
“Hi Peter, I need to go up one more floor, is that chill?”
“Hi Neal” Peter looked at him again, was Neal really in front of him? “That is fine”
They rode up one more floor in silence, and Neal exited with a small wave. Peter wondered who the conman was visiting, but he had his right to a private life so Peter wasn’t going to question him this time.
[3.]
Peter wouldn’t say he was reliant on his phone for everything, but life was just easier with a phone in hand, especially if you have to call someone to get help.
This was one of those times, he was sitting in his car as he watched people walking back and forth with crates. He pulled out his phone and dialled up Neal’s number, he was the person who was best at actually picking up his phone no matter what he was doing.
The phone nearly didn’t ring before he answered it with a short and simple “Yes?”
“I need backup, can you get Jones to drive you to the dock I showed you yesterday?”
“Sure!” Neal said “How fast do we have to be?”
A groan escaped Peter “Don’t do anything illegal!”
As he said that he heard police sirens and he could only imagine that the red and blue blinks filled Neal’s vision, what had he done? How could a walking civilian trigger some cops? He held his breath, he really didn’t want to deal with Neal getting arrested right now.
A knocking sound could be heard, did the police show up at his apartment?
“Uhm, Peter be quiet” Neal said, he heard a car window being rolled down, was he driving? “Hello officer”
“Do you know how fast you were going?”
Neal… Peter was going to strangle him.
A chuckle left Neal “Fast enough, what’s the problem?”
A third voice that sounded suspiciously like Jones joined the conversation “Don’t antagonise a police officer”
“Have you had anything to drink?” The officer asked, it sounded like he was reaching for anything to justify his actions, just as long as he didn’t ask to see Neal’s licence everything would be fine.
“No, do you want to see my licence?” Neal asked, Peter could only imagine him with a dumb grin on his face.
“I need you to do a breathalyser anyways” The stern voice of the police officer responded.
“But I haven’t even shown any symptoms of being drunk!” Neal yelled out, was he accusing a police officer?
Peter let his gaze wander up again, people were still walking back and forward with crates. He would really like backup, but he had been told to shut up, and he trusted Neal so he wasn’t going to say anything.
“You still have to!” The officer said.
“Neal just do it,” Jones, the only voice of reason said.
“Fine…”
“See that wasn’t so hard” Peter was going to get that officer arrested and put out of a job, he had no business talking like that to civilians.
“We really have to get going” Jones urged. That was the wrong move when dealing with police, had he forgotten all about their training?
The police officer put on a stern voice “Can I check that you aren’t hiding anything in your car?”
“Oh for gods sake, just let them go!” Peter exclaimed, he regretted it immediately.
“Who said that?” An angry voice asked.
Jones cut in, Peter imagined him flashing his badge “Let us drive”
“Oh, oh… I am so sorry, just drive ahead!” The officer did a full switch of his voice. Peter was going to abuse his power soon. The ignition roared and the car drove, he really hoped Neal had a logical explanation for whatever just happened.
“What just happened?” He asked, hoping to get an answer that wouldn’t give him a headache.
“I got pulled over, Neal doesn’t understand how police works” Jones hurried and said “We are heading your way now, see you soon.”
*******************
In a matter of minutes a neon purple lamborghini showed up, the workers stopped dead in their tracks and stared, Peter felt his pulse spike, who was that? Was it the infamous Freddie Dinardo?
The door opened and out walked Neal, he looked intimidating as he strode over to the workers, seemingly barking out orders, and the workers obeyed. Was Neal Freddie?
Jones exited as well, but only walked over to Peter’s beat up Honda, his car wasn’t as gracious as their ride, he knew that Jones was secretly rich, but not that rich. He knocked gingerly on the window, and leant on the car.
“Backup has arrived” He announced in a suave voice.
“What did Neal just do?” Peter asked, “How did he just order those people around?”
Jones chuckled “He just has that effect on people”
It seemed as if he also had that effect on Jones. Peter was going to need to do something about that, as much as he respected Neal and Jones, he wouldn’t sit around and watch them corrupt each other.
Speak of the devil and he will appear. Neal walked over to them with a giddy smile on his face. “They believed my act!”
“You should reconsider your career choices.” Peter joked.
“Haha,” He laughed sarcastically “What are you after?”
“I’m still after Freddie Dinardo, he seems to slip through all the cracks.”
“Oh, would you be mad if I told you the truth?”
Jones looked shocked for a second, Peter widened his eyes, was Neal going to confess that he was Freddie?
“This isn’t Freddie Dinardo’s stuff, it’s just your average mafia boss.”
Peter slammed his fists against his steering wheel, and let out a string of curses. “Just… I will alert someone else of it.”
“Okay, was that all?” Jones asked.
Peter answered with a strained “yes”
[4.]
As a part of watching over his CI, Peter had to call him up and do wellness checks, he also had to show up unannounced at his residency to make sure he wasn’t doing anything illegal, but so far he hadn’t caught him doing anything other than drinking wine with Mozzie.
He entered the number, he had memorised it, he did that with most numbers of people he cared about, he wanted to be able to contact them no matter what. The line trilled for a few seconds before going dead. Peter cursed, Neal had changed his phone again, he had made a habit of changing his phone every once in a while, his ongoing theory was that it was a habit from back when he was on the run, he would of course have had to switch out phones in fear of getting tracked.
Now he just had to find out Neal’s newest phone number. He put down his phone and opened his work laptop, all Neal’s contact methods had to be online, he skimmed the file but figured out that the number was still the old one, a sigh escaped him.
He shut down the laptop again and dialled Jones’ number, Neal and him had grown to become practically inseparable so the chance of him knowing the conmans newest number was high.
The call was picked up, Jones didn’t greet him, so Peter started the conversation. “Hello Jones, do you have Neal’s newest number?”
There was a pause, Peter checked his screen to make sure that Jones had actually picked up the phone, he had, maybe he had picked it up accidentally.
“Hello?” Peter tried again.
Rustling could be heard from the other side of the call, was the phone in a pocket? Peter’s finger hovered over the ‘end call’ button, but before he could press it a childlike voice answered.
“Who are you?”
The kid sounded like a posh british man, was Jones secretly british? He had to investigate that later, but the first thing on the table was the kid. “My name is Peter” He took a deep breath “What is your name?”
“Tt don’t talk to me like I am an infant”
Rude much? Peter had to talk with Jones about this child, as far as he knew Jones didn’t have any children or siblings, so he needed to know the relation to this child. Perhaps his phone had been stolen?
“Oh, Sorry, my bad.” Peter let out a fake chuckle “Is Jones nearby?”
“No.”
“Do you know who Jones is?” He mentally crossed his fingers, he really didn’t want to interact with this kid any longer.
“How low is your IQ?”
“High enough” Great answer Peter, let the kid psychoanalyse how insecure you sound.
A voice could be heard in the background, it sounded vaguely like Jones, then a hissing sound closer to the phone, did the kid just hiss? Scrambling and rustling sounded from the phone, and shouting, the words weren’t in english so Peter resigned himself to just listening intently and hoping Jones would be okay.
The struggling died down, and Jones’ voice could be heard “Hi Peter”
“Hello Jones, we will be discussing this later”
“I know, what’s up?”
“Do you have Neal’s new number?”
“Oh” Jones chuckled “Sure, give me two seconds”
Peter’s phone dinged as a message from Jones came through, in it was a phone number. “Thank you, say hi to your… kid?”
A sound of protest was the last thing Peter heard before he hung up, he was curious as to what his conversation with Jones would bring. He shook his head and smiled, there hadn’t been a single boring day ever since he had come to know Jones.
He checked the message from Jones again and copied the number, he had a new number to memorise. The phone dialled for what seemed to be an eternity, before it was picked up.
“City morgue, you stab ‘em, we slab ‘em.”
…
What the actual fuck?
Peter checked the phone again, he had put Neal’s new number in, he was seconds away from sending a heated message to Jones when he heard Neal’s voice in the background.
“Did my phone ring?”
The person who had picked up the phone answered “Nope, just take your sweet time.”
“The phone did ring!” Peter said outraged.
“Shush, he doesn’t need to know that” The voice chuckled and asked “Who are you?”
“Peter Burke, I watch over Neal.”
“Oh” A period of silence followed “So, the FBI?”
Had Neal made a new friend and just not told them about his job as an informant? “Yes, the FBI”
“Great, cool, cool.” The other guy said awkwardly, his voice sounded weirdly familiar, had they met before?
“Yes…” Peter trailed off, was it a criminal? Or was it an agent he had forgotten about? Neal did have a way of charming his way into your heart. “Who are you?”
“I am Batman” The guy replied in a gravelly tone, he was mocking him.
“Great, Batman.” Peter tried to keep his disappointment out of his voice “Can I talk with Neal?”
“Neal!!!” ‘Batman’ shouted, “Your dad is calling!!”
Dad
Dad…
Dad?
Was Peter a dad?
Did Neal see him as a father figure?
Peter hitched his breath, that was something new. ‘Dad’, could he really be a dad? How come Neal didn’t mention anything about how he had been treated by Peter? The start of their relationship was rough, but it had gotten better over time, could Neal really see past that?
Neal could be heard in the background shouting back “What did Peter say?”
He took a deep steadying breath, he had to be better in the future, for everyone's sake.
Rustling could be heard from the other side of the phone, and a familiar voice sounded “Hi Peter”
“Hello Neal” Peter smiled “You must introduce me to your friend”
“That won’t be a good idea” Neal laughed “So, what’s up?”
Neal and Jones both said ‘What’s up’ whenever called, Peter scribbled that thought down on a piece of paper, was it something young people did or were they unconsciously mimicking each others behavioural patterns?
“Just checking up on you” He furrowed his brow, he had an oncoming headache just from the random thought that occurred “How are you?”
“Great?” Neal answered, sounding more like he was asking a question. A scuffling noise was in the background. “Is it okay if I hang up, my friend and I were watching a movie.”
“Goodbye, don’t do anything stupid.”
“Bye, I would never do stupid things.”
[5.]
The team had gotten an anonymous tip over the phone about the whereabouts of Freddie Dinardo, Peter had been ecstatic he could finally finish the case. Hughes had allowed them to go survey the area, but they were briefed about the dangers of going there.
Peter drove them there in his beat up Honda, it was the most unsuspicious car there, especially considering how Jones’ car was purple, he had explained that it was a dare from one of his close friends.
When they arrived at the warehouses, a chill went down Peter’s spine, he hoped that Freddie Dinardo would be there, he wanted to put a lid on this case, it had been hanging over their heads for too long.
Neal groaned “Great there are a million different warehouses”
“Suck it up” Diana said, “Peter, a plan?”
He looked over the area “Let’s split up, Diana and I will cover the west warehouses, you two take the east warehouses.”
Neal mock whispered to Jones “Why do I feel like we are in a horror movie?”
Jones mimicked him as he answered “Because we are”
They were like two small children, if they had gone to the same school in the same class the teacher must have seated them miles away from each other to even have an inkling of hope to have peace in the classroom.
“Enough fooling around, we have a job to do” Peter said sternly, they had all the time in the world to fool around outside of work. “Remember to call for backup, if you find anything, backup can save lives”
“Yes dad” Neal said mockingly, Peter smiled at him, some things never change.
Jones waved dramatically at Diana as they walked away from each other, she did the same. Peter shook his head at them, he was working with children.
Diana and Peter walked into their first warehouse, their guns raised and covering each others backs. The warehouse was nearly empty but there were a few crates here and there, rustling could be heard.
“I am hoping that was just a rat” Diana whispered. Peter nodded in agreement, rats were fine. An ambush from a criminal with a gun? Not so fine.
More rustling and a shadowy figure appeared, the figure was tall and lean, almost like a gymnast. Peter made Diana aware of the figure, she took charge and yelled out “FBI, show yourself!”
The figure lifted their hands and walked towards them, a line of sunshine shone across his face, revealing a moustache and a set of striking blue eyes.
“Hello Peter” He drawled “Long time no see”
Confusion hit Peter like a train, was this Freddie? He looked too young, it could be an impersonator. That would be highly unlikely considering how big of an ego Freddie Dinardo had, he would hate for someone to take his place.
“Hello Freddie” Peter said his gun still trained on the guy, a smile crept across Freddie’s face when his greeting was answered.
Diana moved closer to him, handcuffs in her hands “Don’t move-”
She was interrupted by a person dropping down from the roof, they landed crouched, the fall must have hurt, the roof was several metres up in the air, a second person followed closely by, they had a red helmet on.
“Peter” Diana said, he pulled out his phone dialling Jones’ number, a phone ringing could be heard in the warehouse, it came from the person wearing yellow.
“Wanna take that?” Red Hood asked with his mechanical voice.
“Oh shut up” The yellow person said, hitting Red Hood. They certainly had balls of steel, Peter would never even dare to be near the Red Hood despite him being pardoned for all his actions.
Jones didn’t pick up the phone.
Diana looked between the pair of them, while cuffing Freddie “Do you guys mind?”
Red Hood turned around, Peter imagined him smiling wickedly “Oh, not at all”
Peter dialled Neal’s number, he hoped that Jones had only been distracted by something, surely Neal would pick up, he really wanted backup right now. Backup could save lives.
A disturbing ringtone filled the warehouse, the Barbie theme song had never been as menacing as when it came from Red Hood’s pocket, had they requested backup as well? Peter might have to call in a S.W.A.T. team.
Diana narrowed her eyes at the pair of them “Why are you here?”
“Uhm, hate to be a party crasher but we need to steal your suspect” Red Hood shrugged his shoulders apologetically.
“No!” Peter yelled “You can’t just drop by and take a suspect”
“Drop in” Red Hood corrected, if Peter had been a braver man he would have slapped him.
“We kinda have too” The yellow guy said, searching his pockets and pulling out a piece of paper “Official League business”
“Next time have the paper ready Signal, you looked like an ignoramus”
“A what?” Signal asked. Peter caught Diana’s eyes, she shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes.
“An idiot!” Freddie said, interrupting their moment “Good one Hood”
Diana held on tightly to Freddie’s cuffs “Do you guys want him with or without the cuffs?”
“Oh please take me with them” Freddie said smiling mischievously “I love being cuffed”
Diana pushed him towards Signal, the yellow dude “Take him, I don’t want him anymore”
Signal held up his hands “I don’t either”
Red Hood sighed dramatically “I’ll take him”
Diana led him towards Red Hood “Pleasure doing business with you”
“Likewise”
“Can I see that paper closer?” Peter asked, something was off with this situation, it was too perfect, rehearsed, did Diana have ties with the Justice League?
Signal walked over to him, he was limping slightly, perhaps the drop down was hard on him. He handed him the paper. “Keep it”
Peter read the paper, it looked legit, if only Neal had been there to verify it, he could always spot a forgery without any problems. The paper stated that Freddie Dinardo was wanted for crimes against the Justice League so therefore he was their problem.
“Well… Anyways, we will be heading out with this dude” Signal pointed awkwardly towards Freddie.
Peter was about to protest but Diana slammed her heel down on his foot as a sweet message to shut up. Instead she took the word “Okay, stay frosty”
“Stay frosty” Signal replied, making finger guns and walking out, Red Hood was close behind, he made a last sweeping glance of the warehouse, before walking out.
Peter turned towards Diana “What just happened?”
Diana smiled, and laughed “Sometimes you just have to ignore things that happen, and just…” She made a throwing gesture with her hand “Let life throw new things at you”
Peter and Diana were walking towards the exit, when Peter stopped dead in his tracks “I forgot to get autographs for Jones”
“Shit, next times the charm?” Diana said.
“I guess so.”
[+1.]
Peter was home alone once again, Elizabeth had gone off to Washington to cater at a big event, he was proud of how far she had gone in her line of work. Satchmo was lying on the couch beside him, watching hockey he would rather be watching baseball, but there weren’t any games on the television.
A knock could be heard on the door, he left the couch with a groan, he was getting old. He checked the peephole, it was a mail carrier, weird, it was a saturday the mail didn’t usually come on the weekends. Ignoring that train of thought he opened the door.
The mail carrier gave him a package and held out a clipboard “Hello, can you please sign here?”
“Uh, no” Peter looked at him, there must be something wrong “I think you have the wrong address”
“I do?” The mail carrier looked at the package, tilted his head “I do, I am sorry for the inconvenience.”
Peter smiled politely, he needed to get his mind out of the gutter “Where is the package supposed to be delivered?”
The mail carrier smiled at him before raising the package and hitting him across the head.
********
Peter awoke to a creaking noise and a horrible headache, his FBI training kicked in and he checked what he still had on his person, his gun was gone, and his phone was gone, but he could still feel his backup phone, it was in a secret pocket of his suit, Neal had recommended getting one, so he did.
His kidnappers hadn’t bothered tying him up, so his arms and legs were free. Peter knew he was in deep shit, so he pulled out his phone, his eyes strained when they saw the light, but he continued and called Jones. Jones was a reliable person, he would nearly always pick up the phone, even at odd times of the day.
Jones answered the call with a sleepy voice “Peter why are you calling at… 2 am?”
“I need help?” He said “I may or may not be in trouble.”
Jones groaned “Of course, do I need to track you or?”
Peter chuckled at the absurdity of the situation, Jones was beyond great for not freaking out “Yes please, see you soon?”
“Honey I’m coming home to you”
“Sounds great, love you”
“Love you too.”
Peter sat down on the floor, it was cold, he hoped he wouldn’t catch a cold. Wasn’t it a bit too practical that his phone worked? Surely kidnappers would be clever enough to figure out that he carried multiple phones, shouldn’t they cut off any phone connection?
The thought lingered long enough to create a sense of worry, would Jones and the team be okay? He hoped they would, Jones was a smart man, he could figure out what the best solution to the problem would be, perhaps Diana and Neal would help him.
Peter checked to see if there were any obvious cameras in the room, it only occurred to him after he had made the call that his kidnappers must have seen him do it, but it didn’t seem like he had anything to worry about. It was weird, did his kidnappers even try? They had seemed professional in the way they showed up at his door.
He walked towards the door trying the handle, it was locked. His kidnappers might have a bit of brain anyways, he put his ear to the door, there were no sounds, the door might be soundproof.
Peter checked his phone, it had been some time since he had called Jones, how far would he be away? Would Neal be there? He missed the dumb conman and his remarks, he missed Satchmo, how was the dog doing? Had his criminals fed him? He hoped they had done it, poor Satchmo all alone at home.
He began pacing the room, back and forth, he hoped to lose his sense of time. The room was boring, nothing was in it, just boring grey cement walls and floor, couldn’t they at least have put in a couple posters maybe a book.
Tick
Tock
Tick
Tock.
Time is a funny thing, everyone keeps trying to catch up to it, to get more time, it’s funny. People will kill to get more time, if they could they would buy it, time is the controlling thing of one's life, if you die you have run out of time, but you never get the time you will run out of it. Peter was wasting his time, shouldn’t Jones be here by now? He would hug and possibly kiss the first person who opened the door and freed him.
“Jones!!”
He might as well give yelling a try, the possibility of someone hearing him was slim, but there was still a small chance that his saviour would come. Muffled sounds came from outside the door, Jones? Was it him?
“Jones?” Peter yelled.
The door creaked open and a mechanical voice answered “Not exactly”
Peter ran through the door and hugged Red Hood, he had promised himself to hug his saviour, he didn’t care if it was a bloodthirsty vigilante, he was just happy that he didn’t have to stare at grey any longer.
“Wow, Peter, how did you hit your head?” A yellow figure stood beside them.
“Let go Peter, I need to see that” Red Hood pulled away from him, taking his gloved hand and holding his face still, he sucked breath through his teeth when he saw it.
“Is it that bad?” Peter asked, blinking a few times, the light was unnecessarily bright.
The two heroes looked at each other, Signal made a jerking motion with his head towards Peter, Red Hood looked him directly into his eyes, could he even do that with the helmet? “No, it’s fine, just needs some…”
“Ice and bandages” Signal finished the sentence, were they twins? Twins sometimes finished each others sentences, it was also possible that they were just related, or good friends, studies show that when people are near each other for extended periods of time they start mimicking each other and sometimes finishing the other's train of thoughts.
“Are you related?” Peter asked, he had to know.
“Uhm” Signal chuckled “I guess you can say that?”
“Maybe?” Red Hood said, a snort escaped him, he turned towards Signal and said “I love Peter like this”
Weird.
“Wait, I need your autographs” Peter said, he had forgotten it last time, this time he would remember, Jones loved vigilantes and heroes.
“Sure, where do we sign?” Signal asked, looking around.
Red Hood shook his helmeted head “Peter, we can sign when you get home.”
“Don’t you need my address?”
“Nope, I have stalked you ever since you were born” Red Hood said, Peter raised his eyebrows, he didn’t think that Red Hood was that old, but you learn something new every day. “Kidding, O has given us your address, let’s go now.”
**********
The trip home was uneventful, they had been in Metropolis, so the drive home wasn’t that long. Peter had to ask Jones how he had contacted the vigilantes of Gotham and gotten them to do his bidding, Diana had probably helped him, she seemed to know more than she led on.
Satchmo had jumped on him when he had opened the door, excited to see his owner again. Peter had let the dog lick him and was about to pour food in the bowl when he saw that it was already taken care of. His kidnappers had been kind enough not to let a dog starve, or was it his two heroes?
Signal had sat down on his couch, seemingly at home “Where do we sign the autographs?”
“Let me get some paper-”
“Already have some” Red Hood interrupted “Want a message?”
“No thank you”
Jones was going to be ecstatic no matter what.
***********
Duke had been tearing up the next day when Peter had walked into the office with a big smile on his face and a bandaged forehead, in his hands was some paper, he had immediately recognised it, he had been standing with it just the other night.
“Peter, what’s up?” He asked, trying to sound nonchalant “Did you have an eventful weekend?”
“Shut up” Peter said, handing over the paper “Consider this a thank you.”